Major apologies for failing to post the last two Sundays. I’m going to be brutally honest here because I think by this time, my posts have been chock-full of confession time. Two Sundays ago, I was busy… trying to watch as many episodes of ‘Person of Interest.’ I don’t know why it took me so long to start watching it but when I started, I got really hooked. And of course that is not long before the planned departure of the show from Netflix. To add insult to injury, it’s not available anywhere else! Well, except for Prime video, but I am really not willing to pay extra (I’m a cheapskate) so cramming was what I did. Even then I only finished up to season 3 before Netflix pulled the plug.
Last Sunday, we were on our mini vacation. Before we left the house, I packed my laptop nice and secure in my laptop bag. I even joked to Ryann that the laptop bag has not left the house since March. Then we packed up the car and during the last two minutes, I ran into the guest bedroom/home office and grabbed the laptop cable charger. In the car I said to Ryann, good thing I remembered my charger! It would be funny if I had the laptop but not the charger, haha! I bet you know where this is going. We got to our destination and guess what. That laptop bag did not get packed into the car. Irony upon irony. I had my charger but nothing to charge. And that’s why I didn’t post last Sunday.
To help with the lack of post, I did do a live stream last week. Thank you to all who tuned in with us. I did two recipes and this is sort of one of them. Let’s call this a two-parter. This week I will show you how to make challah bread. I’ve always heard that challah makes the best french toast so I thought I’d give it a try. We’re making french toast from scratch by making the bread first.
Ingredients:
- 0.5 cup lukewarm water (approx. 110°F – if you don’t have a thermometer, make sure that it feels like bathwater in the way that you can dip your fingers in and feel comfortably warm/not too hot)
- 2.25 teaspoons active dry yeast (1 packet)
- 3 cups all-purpose flour plus extra rolling out
- 0.25 granulated sugar or honey
- 1.25 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs + 1 egg yolk (save the white for brushing before baking)
- 0.25 cup vegetable oil (don’t use anything fancy, just canola or generic vegetable oil is best here)
- Optional: sesame seeds or poppy seeds for topping
Directions:
- Mix the yeast into the water with a pinch of sugar or a teaspoon of honey if that’s what you’re using for this recipe. Stir to combine and set aside for about 5-10 minutes, or until you see a frothy layer on top. If you don’t see this happening after 10 minutes, that means your yeast is expired and you’ll need to get new yeast.
- Mix in the flour, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl. If you’re using honey, just mix flour and salt. In a separate bowl mix in the two eggs and one egg yolk, oil, and honey (if you’re using this instead of sugar). Add in the yeast mixture and stir to combine.
- Make a well in the center of your flour and pour in the mixture of eggs, oil, honey (if using), and yeast. Using a fork or a spatula, mix them into the flour from the outside in. Do this slowly until you get everything sort of combined into a shaggy dough. Shaggy like the hairdo, not the singer of Mr. Boombastic. You’ve never heard of him? I guess I’m dating myself…
- Put some flour on your kitchen counter, then turn out the dough and start kneading. Here’s where you will get some forearm workout because you want to knead for about 10 minutes. Add in a little bit of flour if you feel that the dough is too sticky. At the end of the 10 minutes, your dough should be able to hold a ball shape and it should feel smooth like a baby’s bottom. Also firm like a the bottom of a healthy baby. Okay, I’ll stop talking about baby’s bottom.
- Take another mixing bowl and oil the inside lightly. Place the dough in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place it somewhere warm. Usually kitchen counter will be warm enough but if it’s a particularly cold day where you are, you can also place this inside a turned-off oven. Let the dough rise until about doubled, which should take between 90 minutes to 2 hours.
- After the dough has risen, divide them into three or six equal pieces (this depends on the type of braid you want to do, 6 or 3-strand). Roll each piece out into a long rope, kind of like how a certain pretzel place rolls them out (admit it, you’ve spent at least 3 minutes of your life watching them). Braid the strands together. If you’re making 3-strand braid, then braid it like hair. I’m talking regular ol’ braid, not fishtail, not french braid, just regular. If you’re making 6-strand braid, I found this tutorial to be very helpful. Honestly, whatever braid you decide to do, this bread is going to be delicious so go crazy!
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or oil it lightly. Place the challah loaf on top and cover with a greased/lightly oiled plastic wrap to prevent sticking. Put in a warm place and let it rise again for about 1 hour.
- When you are about 15 minutes away from the end of the 1-hour rising period, preheat the oven to 375°F and adjust the oven rack to lower-middle position. Take the reserved egg white and whisk it with 2 tablespoons of water . Brush the challah loaf with this mixture, making sure you get all the nooks and crannies. This mixture is what will give nice browning to the bread. Sprinkle with seeds if you are using them.
- Bake until golden brown, about 30-40 minutes, rotating halfway through baking. Let the bread cool on a rack before slicing into it. This will be the hardest part of the recipe because you will want to tear into it, enjoy it, and be cradled in the warmth of fresh baked bread. Or is that just me? This bread is good as it is, or slathered with butter, or you can also slice them thick and leave them out overnight to make them a little stale to make french toast in the morning.
A Dash of Yoyo 